The Energon Pub

I'm sure we'll still get Ironhide here in the US. Probably a later wave or even a Walmart/Target/KMart/TRU exclusive. He's all set for US standards (as evident by Kup's release) and he's a pickup truck which us yanks love.

After looking at Voyager Breakdown closely, you can tell he was never intended for US release. He's covered in Micron attach points, has thinner plastic in various spots and seems way too expensive to produce at current Voyager Price points. Probably will be the same with Unicron.

Looks like the completist will need to rely on importers from now on.

Flakmaster wrote:Just look at my signature. That's about what I think of these constantly cancelled US releases.

There's a reason that I stopped buying TFs in the last 2 months.



my thoughts on Hasbro's current marketing strategy is above.

You're assuming they HAVE a marketing strategy, which I'm no longer convinced they do.

It isn't possible to make money selling toys if you don't actually release the frigging toys.

Actually, Hasbro has a pretty good marketing strategy this year. It's Avengers >>> Furby >>>> Transformers. The less space Transformers taker on those cargo containers from China means more space for Avengers toys. Spiderman toys are probably up there too.

It's great as a Hasbro investor. Sucks as a collector.

A mold that is supposed to be an Ironhide but not an Ironhide? I thought Ironhide is much more famous than Kup at least he appeared in all three movies (if not, where those arm cannons from) and the previous Animated series.

Hasbro is deliberately f***king with us. No other way to say it.

I expected this.

I guess not having yet another red car in the Deluxe range is a good thing, more variety.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I guess not having yet another red car in the Deluxe range is a good thing, more variety.

I too am getting tired of the red coloring all over the Autobots, but not when it's someone this badass. Time to import.

And now I have a reason to get Sergeant Kup. Ironhide needs cannon donations.

Hypershock wrote:

kirbenvost wrote:And now the preorder is sold out, of course. Dammit, why is Hasbro half-assing every toy line nowadays? Used to be we got silly repaints no one wanted, now we don't even get figures that are on the show that everybody wants.

I don't think they're half-assing it, i think they're just really unsure of where they want this line to go. They've had some hits and misses with Prid, admittedly more misses than hits, so they're probably taking a step back, looking at the reactions to the current figures and trying to come up with a game plan of where they wanna go from here. We haven't heard anything past voyager wave five/deluxe wave five, and that's the current wave for deluxes, plus i'm assuming that those voyagers will be out shortly.

They should've listened to the clamoring for FEs a lot earlier. All of those figure were hits (aside from BB, whose quality still can't be denied), yet they 'canceled' them for reasons unknown. Aside from the ridiculous case assortments, I don't buy the 'lack of retailer interest' excuse, unless the cost of production really has gone up that much, leading to price increases. Now they are getting released, but it's a little late. Most of the people who wanted them badly already paid out the nose to get them.

So now for the main line they've chosen to go with these simplified toys, which is fair enough, but now they can't even release all those. They're failing almost as badly as with DOTM. Maybe they should stop releasing multiple lines at the same time. I'm as happy as anyone that we're getting FoC toys, but I would like to finish a line just once without 1/4 of the figures getting canceled.

I think they're not sure whether to do new molds of existing characters, or release molds that havent been released, or just straight up repaints of everybody from now on with a new figure here and there.

Everything they've done from Armada to the first Movie seemed to work, I don't understand why they have trouble figuring out what to do. They've been making Transformers for 25 years, you'd think it wouldn't be so hard for them to produce and distribute them.

I wouldn't say it with 100% certainty, but i do think it's a strong likelihood that we get at least some of these guys by the middle of next year

That's assuming the line even survives that long.

They've done well with a lot of things, Masterpieces, getting store exclusives released, media, etc, but their main lines are really.

Doc bot wrote:
After looking at Voyager Breakdown closely, you can tell he was never intended for US release. He's covered in Micron attach points, has thinner plastic in various spots and seems way too expensive to produce at current Voyager Price points. Probably will be the same with Unicron.

Looks like the completist will need to rely on importers from now on.

Other than the Micron ports (which could've been added later like the deluxes), I disagree about Breakdown. He doesn't look any more complex than FE Bulkhead or Prime, which were both sold for regular Voyager price in Canada. Unicron seems a lot different though, almost as if he was designed by a different team.

PrymeStriker wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I guess not having yet another red car in the Deluxe range is a good thing, more variety.

I too am getting tired of the red coloring all over the Autobots, but not when it's someone this badass. Time to import.

And now I have a reason to get Sergeant Kup. Ironhide needs cannon donations.

And the Micron?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I guess not having yet another red car in the Deluxe range is a good thing, more variety.

I too am getting tired of the red coloring all over the Autobots, but not when it's someone this badass. Time to import.

And now I have a reason to get Sergeant Kup. Ironhide needs cannon donations.

And the Micron?

The Micron looks fugly, and will probably be tossed aside in a box somewhere. Ugly Orange Cannon.

Hasbro....YOU KNOW I WANTED IRONHIDE NOW SOMEONE FIRE F*** UP FRANK.

PrymeStriker wrote:I expected this.

Can I borrow this when they announce an Ironhide for one of the upcoming wave sets for their Generations line?

Well, if we can't get Ironhide, buy Kup and repaint him red (or get Ironhide and use Kup's cannons.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:I expected this.

Can I borrow this when they announce an Ironhide for one of the upcoming wave sets for their Generations line?

Just kidding.

Anyone know how bulky the Kup/Ironhide mold is in comparison to Generations Ironhide? I'm seriously considering replacing Ironhide with this guy, but not if he's significantly tinier.

i'm so sick and tired of this.. the last prime figure i picked up was knockout..

they're completely ruined a line that i thought had a LOT of promise.

BRING ON MASTERPIECE SOUNDWAVE, RED ALERT, & SIDESWIPE.

TimothyR wrote:i'm so sick and tired of this.. the last prime figure i picked up was knockout..

they're completely ruined a line that i thought had a LOT of promise.

BRING ON MASTERPIECE SOUNDWAVE, RED ALERT, & SIDESWIPE.

Technically, my last Prime figure was Knock Out too.

But I imported Breakdown. Don't know if you'd count that.

I thought this line was going to have a lot of promise as well. I still hope they'll be another "series" of Prime where we get all the characters and toys that we didn't get in "Series 1." I'm going to lose faith in that soon, though.

Mkall wrote:Anyone know how bulky the Kup/Ironhide mold is in comparison to Generations Ironhide? I'm seriously considering replacing Ironhide with this guy, but not if he's significantly tinier.

When did they make a Generations Ironhide? Because I know that they made a Generations Kup, but cannot find anything on Ironhide. Or did you mean Universe Ironhide?

TimothyR wrote:i'm so sick and tired of this.. the last prime figure i picked up was knockout..

they've completely ruined a line that i thought had a LOT of promise.

BRING ON MASTERPIECE SOUNDWAVE, RED ALERT, & SIDESWIPE.

Number one rule when it comes to an American toyline: If a deluxe toy was made to be part of a series, expect to see that figure to be in some part of the series as long as new episodes are being made.

And with Hasbro doing this, these characters will either be in the animated series, IDW comics tie-ins, and/or a game series-based tie-in.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:

Mkall wrote:Anyone know how bulky the Kup/Ironhide mold is in comparison to Generations Ironhide? I'm seriously considering replacing Ironhide with this guy, but not if he's significantly tinier.

When did they make a Generations Ironhide? Because I know that they made a Generations Kup, but cannot find anything on Ironhide. Or did you mean Universe Ironhide?

TimothyR wrote:i'm so sick and tired of this.. the last prime figure i picked up was knockout..

they've completely ruined a line that i thought had a LOT of promise.

BRING ON MASTERPIECE SOUNDWAVE, RED ALERT, & SIDESWIPE.

Number one rule when it comes to an American toyline: If a deluxe toy was made to be part of a series, expect to see that figure to be in some part of the series as long as new episodes are being made.

And with Hasbro doing this, these characters will either be in the animated series, IDW comics tie-ins, and/or a game series-based tie-in.

We're rather lacks on toys. They're putting Prime as a show first, then a toyline. This is further proven by the lack of a Voyager Breakdown, Smokescreen, Jet Vehicon or Unicron in the U.S (let-alone nobody confirming an Insecticon or Shockwave release at all), the fact that PRiD came out 1 1/4 of a year after the original air of Prime, and that First Edition was cancelled barely halfway into the toyline, only to be re-released a whole year later.

And quite frankly, there have been many, many toys in toylines that never made it into Transformers fiction. So that's barely true. (Take Darksteel from DOTM for example. Or Air Raid, as he seems to have two different counterparts that differ across movie fictions).

PrymeStriker wrote:We're rather lacks on toys. They're putting Prime as a show first, then a toyline. This is further proven by the lack of a Voyager Breakdown, Smokescreen, Jet Vehicon or Unicron in the U.S (let-alone nobody confirming an Insecticon or Shockwave release at all), the fact that PRiD came out 1 1/4 of a year after the original air of Prime, and that First Edition was cancelled barely halfway into the toyline, only to be re-released a whole year later.

And quite frankly, there have been many, many toys in toylines that never made it into Transformers fiction. So that's barely true. (Take Darksteel from DOTM for example. Or Air Raid, as he seems to have two different counterparts that differ across movie fictions).

Never said they were doing anything perfectly. I'm just saying that they are being Hasbro, or at least the Hasbro that is trying to make these toys for the kids that watch the show on The Hub.

Besides... According to TFwiki, Ironhide is currently rumored to be part of the Deluxe line's future wave. And this makes me wonder if he will be part of their early 2013 line, and if it will be distributed along with one or two Insecticon characters.

Oh... And wasn't their FIRST EDITION line a mess before it was cancelled? Because all I remember is that I missed out on obtaining the Takara Tomy version of Arcee before getting her Arms Microns version. But from what I read, they had numerous issues from this toyline before cancelling it. Shame, though, as they could have brought this back as an edition for collectors that dislike their RiD line.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:But from what I read, they had numerous issues from this toyline before cancelling it. Shame, though, as they could have brought this back as an edition for collectors that dislike their RiD line.

What issues, exactly? The only one I've heard is that retailers didn't want to stock up on the figs.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:But from what I read, they had numerous issues from this toyline before cancelling it. Shame, though, as they could have brought this back as an edition for collectors that dislike their RiD line.

What issues, exactly? The only one I've heard is that retailers didn't want to stock up on the figs.

From what I was told, besides the fact that it turned out to be a limited run with pieces being distributed outside the U.S. markets... There were distribution issues within the U.S.

But I did recently hear a rumor that they might bring out a few pieces to Toys"R"Us this December.

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:But from what I read, they had numerous issues from this toyline before cancelling it. Shame, though, as they could have brought this back as an edition for collectors that dislike their RiD line.

What issues, exactly? The only one I've heard is that retailers didn't want to stock up on the figs.

From what I was told, besides the fact that it turned out to be a limited run with pieces being distributed outside the U.S. markets... There were distribution issues within the U.S.

But I did recently hear a rumor that they might bring out a few pieces to Toys"R"Us this December.

First Editions will be released end of November for the holiday season. The best part? No Bumblebees!

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:

Mkall wrote:Anyone know how bulky the Kup/Ironhide mold is in comparison to Generations Ironhide? I'm seriously considering replacing Ironhide with this guy, but not if he's significantly tinier.

When did they make a Generations Ironhide? Because I know that they made a Generations Kup, but cannot find anything on Ironhide. Or did you mean Universe Ironhide?

Guess so. They all run together